Adobe Production Studio

Jason Levine, the Adobe evangelist, had to be the most excited instructor I had seen all day. This man eats, sleeps and breathes Adobe software. He only had time to show us a few things in Adobe Photoshop CS3. His enthusiasm made me excited about the new features that Photoshop CS3 has to offer. Images can now be made into a 3-D model without taking as much time. Objects can be selected without the dreaded magnetic lasso tool taking 30 minutes to trace. We also learned that now video can be edited using Photoshop. The new features reduce time and improve quality of images.

Mary Manno

Can I be a Journalist and a Christian, Too?

I was really excited about my noon session because I was going to attend the independent filmmaking seminar. By the time I got to that room, every seat was taken. I found myself wandering the hall for a different session to sit in.

The one I wandered into happened to be my favorite of the day. Terry Mattingly and Dean Nelson were very interesting and entertaining instructors. They discussed how teachers at Christian colleges can be biased and turn students away from secular journalism jobs. They identified being a journalist as a calling. A really great point they made is how religious people hate journalists, but the people who wrote the Bible were journalistic in a way. The Bible is written by storytellers, and in a way, journalists are storytellers. They tell the stories that get published all over the nation or even just their community.

They also discussed how some of the ethics of Christianity make great journalistic standards. Christians are supposed to treat others as they would want to be treated. Same thing goes for journalists. They should write stories about others as they would want stories about them written -- unbiased.

A great verse they gave us is Proverbs 31:8

"Speak up for those who can not speak for themselves."

Mary Manno

'And You Want Me to Write What?'

This session centered on recommendation letters and tips on how to get teachers to write one for you. A handout was passed out with one side giving examples of two recommendation letters and the other with the top 10 things to remember when looking for a great reference. Some of the tips include providing a job description of the job or internship and giving the adviser a resume and portfolio to jog their memory. We were also taught that the adviser is like "Santa Claus" and is watching a student at all times. Also, the adviser is keener to write a great recommendation letter for a student who is always trying and working hard.

Mary Manno

Intro to Underwriting

In all honesty, this session made me a little sad. One of the instructors talked about how strict they were on their staff. After one excused absence at the station (as in missing their shift without notifying a manager ahead of time) they received a warning. The second time they lost their shift, because 700 students were on a waiting list to fill that spot. I wish somehow students would get that excited about KNWD! I cannot even imagine a waiting list that long! I did take note that deejays were dismissed for missing their shifts, since it can be a problem at our station.

The main thing discussed in this session was how to create an effective media kit to send out to advertisers. The main thing to remember is to keep it simple and client-centered. We also learned about effective times to contact certain businesses in order to make an ad sell.

Mary Manno

First impressions of our nation's capitol ... a day late

As this was my first visit to Washington D.C., I couldn't help but peer out of the window of the airplane when we began our descent into Reagan National. The brake lights of afternoon traffic pockmarked the soaked streets of our nation's capital...unfortunately we would encounter traffic of our own. We happened to board the Metro subway right as Washington's corporate bees left their metaphorical hive. Apparently masses of people crammed into tiny subway cars bring out the worst of people in this city. Regardless, this has been quite an educationally valuable trip (more on the visual spectacle later) as we attended our first sessions today.


At 9 a.m., I attended the "Whither Magazines" session with National Geographic magazine's Keith Bellows, who discussed the future of magazines. He essentially stated that reinvention must occur if magazines are to survive. Writers must become more well-rounded in terms of what they can do for the publication; they must be willing to write for the print and online mediums. They must be willing to produce narratives that engross the reader.

At the 10 a.m. "Intro to Underwriting" session with NPR's J.C. Patrick, we explored the basics of radio kits to present to potential advertising clients. Radio kits should be personal and user-friendly to the prospective and should sell a benefit -- not a feature -- to the prospective client.

At the 11 a.m. 'Breaking into Magazines" session, we learned that query letters really help gain the attention of magazines to your story, as many submissions lack a query letter and magazines have little time to sort through them all. The session was focused heavily on the query letter. We also learned that if we wanted to start submitting now, it's all right to state that we're still writing for our school's newspaper.

The 12 p.m. "College Press 101" was a basic outline of significant court cases involving student journalists with follow-up on how it affects us today. The SPLC's Adam Goldstein was very knowledgeable of his craft, as he deals with the bulk of calls from student journalists to the SPLC; he said that he deals with at least 1,000 calls per year, which surprised me a bit.

Perhaps the most energetic session of the day was hosted by Jason Levine. The 1 p.m. session by the self-proclaimed evangelist for Adobe software was filled with exhibitions of his "prowess". Oohs and aahs serenaded his glowing ponytailed and mutton-chopped aura after he made a seagull disappear from a video clip in the Adobe After Effects program. I was personally engrossed in the new software that enables users to make their videos suitable for broadcast on everything from cell phones to YouTube.

More on the sights and sounds of D.C. in a later post. My fingers hurt.

--Richelle Stephens

Whither Magazines? A Look at the Future

Originally, I was going to attend a seminar about landing an internship. However, it happened to be canceled, and I found myself at a seminar about magazines. With all the convergence going on in journalism, I decided to attend a seminar that deals with something that I do not know that much about--magazines.

Keith Bellows, who works at National Geographic, gave a great seminar about how the magazine industry is not a dying field, just different. He gave us a different way to look at the rise of Internet readers. The magazine world is now a 360-degree field. Reporters are not only being hired to write articles, but to post Web articles and podcast.

I learned a lot from this seminar. I never realized that a magazine has to keep a subscriber 3-4 years in order to start making money off of them. Mr. Bellows made it clear that getting into this field is very competitive, especially for photographers to get work in National Geographic. He gave some great advice for breaking into the field. For example, when you intern, always ask if there is something to do. Motivation shows that company you really want to help and learn. Mr. Bellows said National Geographic has had countless interns who just sit at their desk and wait for work and lack that certain motivation the magazine needs. In the end, they don't get selected for the jobs.

Mary Manno

Rolling Suitcases unite!!!

For some reason, sitting in the airport Wednesday morning made me really nervous. Maybe it was because I was about to conquer (like many airplane trips before) my fear of heights and embrace the unknowingness of the sky. Maybe it was because I was reading "Into the Wild", a book about a free spirit embracing the road for two years, finally starving to death in Alaska. The only thing I did know was that I was early. My mom, being the wonderful person that she is, demanded dropping me off at the airport about 20 minutes till I had to be there.

After defeating the wannabe Airforce 1, also known as the Shreveport jet, I waited anxiously with Dr. Lee, Jim and Lauren to see if we won a seat on the 11:45 plane. Oh, the joyous life of a standby flyer. By some miracle of God, all three of us made it on the plane and into Washington in one piece. Since we have been here it has been an interesting ride. There are a lot of important people walking on the streets (and by important I mean they have a suitcase and are listening to an iPod). The Wall Street posers line the subways, and we knowingly took them down with our rolling suitcases.

Mary Manno

Writing About Your Campus Through the Lens of Diversity.

While this session drew me in with its caption, I should have read the blurb more closely. This noontime session on Thursday spotlighted George Mason University's VoxPop magazine and Web site, both dedicated to tell stories of diversity on campus. The staff and advisors discussed the elaborate team-building and creative processes that went into launching this project as well as the work that goes into producing and publishing VoxPop now.

The last thing I need is another student medium to advise, but the determination to seek out diverse voices and coverage is something that I want to cultivate in the media that I already oversee. I picked up an issue of VoxPop to leaf through and bring back. The magazine is impressively colorful and glossy -- it looks like the alumni periodicals that I get from much larger universities with much larger budgets.

VoxPop's articles and features cover a wide range of cultures and voices, ranging from "Mason Moms" (students with children) to "Minority in a Sorority" to "To Hijab or Not to Hijab?" (Islamic clothing) and beyond. It's clear that the VoxPop staff, which is larger than the entire staff of our campus paper, was dedicated to finding new approaches to reporting on existing tensions and to showcase diversity as a strength in the context of their campus.

Suggestions from VoxPop for campuses wanting to start a similar project:
- Know your audience. Who will read your publication?
- Find ways to partner with organizations and involve the community
- Identify grant sources and other funding options
- Solicit advertisers who might have an interest in diversity issues
- Emphasize distribution and promotion strategies

Note: while VoxPop is a publication of George Mason's University Life office, students edit, write and design the magazine.

Dr. Lee

Legal and Ethical Issues for Advisers.

Not sure what the CMA powers that be were thinking when they scheduled "The Socially Conscious Adviser" and this session for the same hour on Thursday morning. I tried to go to the first simply because I was running late and the room was closer than the other. However, the socially conscious were not spacially conscious. The room set-up was backwards, so that the speakers were by the door. This lack of feng shui made it difficult to slink into the audience without disrupting the entire panel. So, rather than cause a ruckus, I decided to ditch the social and head down the hall to the legal and ethical.

This session, led by Kathy Lawrence of UT and Karen Bosley of Ocean County College, more fueled than calmed my anxiety as a first-year student media adviser. I am in charge of both the campus newspaper and radio station, so I was already a little wild-eyed before I had even walked into the room. True tales of advisers canned for their involvement in student media send “get prescription for ulcer medication” higher up my to-do list. (Bosley had been fired from her position as newspaper adviser after 30 years, but she has since been reinstated with the help of the CMA.)

Because I double-booked for this hour, I arrived just as the session changed in a Q&A format. As advisers in the audience starting asking about this and that hypothetical situation, I suddenly wanted my mommy.

Advice from Lawrence, head of CMA’s Adviser Advocacy Committee and immediate past president of CMA:
- Do not become involved in the content of the paper.
- Get a formal, written description of exactly what the student media advisor job entails.
- Do not get involved in a reader’s problem with the paper. Refer the complaint to the editor in chief.
- Seek alliances within the university.
- If needed, CMA can assign an investigator to your case and help as ombudsperson, so contact them.

I did find it reassuring that the CMA has people who, according to Lawrence, would drop what they were doing to help a fellow adviser out of a jam. Now that's what I like to hear. Lawrence handed out her business cards at the end of the session, and I think we all took one. Yikes, you never know.

Why Blog?

During this conference, it is not uncommon to hear advisors admonishing their students about attending sessions. We all worry about whether the students will be so excited over being in D.C. that they lose sight of what brought us here in the first place. One of my students, however, had the chance to give ME a hard time about attendance, after I was a no-show to “New Media and the 2008 Presidential Election,” an early-bird session that we were both planning to attend. (So much for leading by example. Thanks for saving me a seat anyway, Chris.)

I had spent most of the morning try to find free wi-fi so that I could e-mail an updated version of the JOUR 3600 exam to Mrs. B. (Mrs. Brocato, Marie and Sharis: thank you for making sure the test ran smoothly in my absence!) Consequently, my first session of the day turned out to be a mid-morning one: “BLOGGING FOR ADVISORS.” This year, the NSU group is blogging from the conference for the first time, and I was eager to find other ways that I could incorporate this new media tool in my classes and curriculum in the future.

The panelists – Rachele Kanigel, San Francisco State University; Joe Gisondi, Eastern Illinois University; and Christina Drain, Pensacola Junior College – showed examples of blogs that they had created and supported for journalism classes and student media, along with others they developed as personal teaching tools. The amount of time and creativity that they devoted to blogging was impressive and inspiring.

I left this session with high hopes for our “Student Media invades D.C.” blog. Eleven of us from NSU are writing about what we’ve seen, done and learned, in our own words, from our own points of view, over the course of our time in D.C. Yes, it’s an ambitious project to undertake in an already overscheduled 72-hour trip. Plus, we only have four laptops with us AND are too frugal to pay for the hotel’s ubiquitous Internet access.

However, if we can pull this off – and I wholeheartedly believe that we can – this project will exemplify what our journalism department and NSU student media can accomplish. Thank goodness I found some free wi-fi. We’re going to need it.

Dr. Lee

What the Law Allows

Podcasting, as it turns out, is currently surrounded by lots of legislation. This session explored in-depth copyright issues. We discussed Copyright laws that have been passed, the first in 1790, as well as one in 1976 that removed the defense that something was for educational purposes.

We talked about what things were eligible to receive copyrights, and which are not. Ideas, facts and titles are some examples of things that cannot necessarily be protected.

But podcasts are interesting in that it has not yet been determined if news content on them can be considered news. While stremaing is viewed legally as as public performance, a DPD podcast is distribution. Podcasts were called the TIVO of radio.

We learned that a copyright is valid for 95 years from its publication and 120 years after its creation.

Laser-dropping, the process of cutting two or more clips from a song and randomly using them on the air or in a piece, is not exempt from fees that have to be paid for permission. We also went into the importance of getting people to sign releases after they have participated in interviews online. The professor from Michigan who was leading the discussion shared a rather lengthy anecodote about a gubernatorial candidate whose campaign was ruined after he said something on a college radio station that ended up being spread all over the place until even the AP picked it up and ran with it.

Finally, we talked a little about Napster and the ligation in progress.

Jim Mustian

So you want to be a foreign correspondent?

This session started slow but ended being interesting for me. We watched a slide show about IES, which is a program that places students in internships in Europe, primarily Italy and Spain. This organization claims to help students on their way to becoming correspondents, with permanent work opportunities abroad. But only 7 percent of the students that receive positions are in any way shape or form affiliated with journalism. Their very best one is a girl they selected to come and give a brief testimony of her experiences.

The speakers told students in attendence how important it is to broaden horizons and acquire second language skills. The young lady who spoke had been placed in Italy and claimed to speak Italian. She did not, however, indicated whether she had learned the langauge within the four weeks she was there, or if she was born with it, etc. While they were right with their observations as to what students should shoot for when studying abroad, the following quote left me unimpressed with what they had to offer. "Someone will speak English, don't worry. And you'll be able to find a place to find a hamburger."

Part of the experience is not just learning Italian (or other foreign language) or broadcast journalism skills (they also kept a Webzine and posted video and news reports of a small town they covered) but also adopting a new culture. Going over in goups of 25, as they did, creates what linguists refer to as the ghetto effect, a phenomenon that precludes second language acquisition.

A gentleman seated to my right interjected at the end that he was from a university in St. Paul that offered a similar program in the German city of Trier, as well as an internship in the Twin Cities. I approached him and found it interesting that he was stationed at the same university I was at last year in Dortmund.

Jim Mustian

Feature Fluff a failure

I was disappointed with the third session I attended because of the misleading title. Expecting to gain clearer insights on enriching feature stories with interesting facts and visual descriptions, I was surprised when it turned out to be fifty minutes of the Post showing off its last ten or so layout designs for its features page. It was still informative, but when I think about fluff, I really think of content. The woman who led the presentation was very passionate and apparently also very into coffee.

These were the basic concepts covered in the session:
-use one image but play it big
-"Content drives design"
-creative cropping
-making things more digestable without dumbing them down

Jim Mustian

Covering the World

My second session was prettty impressive, despite an inauspicious beginning. Peter Baker, a staff writer for The Washington Post, was not introduced by anybody and quietly approached the mic. He told us he was "a horrible public speaker" but then proceeded to give some background on what he's done so far and what it takes to reach his level. He stressed the importance of internships to make contacts as well as good clips in a portfolio. He told us about the difference between covering issues abroad and topics in the White House. He used to be the chief of the Moscow bureau and said he and his wife both first took a year off of reporting and immersed themselves in the language. They still used interpreters while they were there for accuracy, but he said he was fluent by the time he left.

One student asked him if politics and goings-on in D.C. could easily be incorporated into even a campus newspaper. After establishing that this paper only covers local things, Mr. Baker suggested an angle of how the political things have implications on students. He pointed out that most people will go online for the big news anyway.

He gave tips for approaching the foreign correspondent position, and reminded us that you can't file a story if you get killed following a beat.

We also talked about how many newspapers are closing their foreign services and bureaus in other countries because they rely on big papers and the Associated Press for syndicated news coverage. This, of course, can be attributed to convergence.

Mr. Baker also discussed some of his more unpleasant stories and said he was working on the Monica Lewinsky beat when the Post broke the story.

Jim Mustian

How to get an internship...eerrr yearbook stuff

The first session I wanted to check out this morning was postponed unfortunately. We were told, however, that it will take place tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. I was already up and didn't want that to be wasted, so I jumped in another room that had an interesting-sounding description. The session "Covering your Campus Effectively" turned out to be dedicated to yearbook staffs, something I am largely unfamiliar with despite my last-minute contribution to the work recently submitted for the Potpourri.

I was, however, impressed with the speaker, Sally Turner -- a professor at Eastern Illinois University -- and how organized she was. She pointed out some good things to keep in mind and gave some pointers on establishing good contacts to people on campus, i.e. people who will undoubtedly be chronicled in the yearbook. Apropos chronicle, that's what she called the yearbook as a whole. She also emphasized the need to capture lifestyles of the era so when people pick up the yearbook in 20 years, they will have a clear perception as to what was going on now. She also suggested doing feature stories on people she said who made up the "underbelly" of the university, such as cafeteria workers who have been here for decades.

Jim Mustian

First impressions of D.C.

Arriving about an hour and a half before our colleauges -- which actually turned out to be about two hours after their flight was delayed -- Lauren, Mary and I got off the plane with some physiological needs to attend to. No consensus was met on what to eat, but we found a common table. It wasn't until several minutes had passed that I realized how close Reagan airport is to the action in D.C., and turning the page of a newspaper I caught my first glimpse of the Washington Monument.

I must admit that the first few minutes were rather intimidating. People were looking at us like we didn't belong, and I felt like they were right. Businessmen rushing to catch their commuter flights and finalizing deals over the phone was the norm. A few college kids in jeans drew a few not uninterested stares.

The subway system is efficient and pretty simple to understand. It reminded me a lot of the subway in London. A guy on our metro was drinking a Bud Light in the open, which opened a humurous dialogue between me and Chris as to the legality and/or indifference to that in this area.

One of the girls travelling with us wasn't familiar with the unwritten rule that you stand to the right when going up from the subway, or on any escalator really. Added to that was the fact she had a massive suitcase at her side. In any case, people rushing to the next place didn't care, and I felt bad when one man embarassed her and loudly demanded she step to the side immediately. I think the guy embarassed himself though.

There are a lot of really nice cars here, and I have the impression there's a good bit of money here. I saw an ATM slip left on the machine as I was withdrawing some cash and just happened to notice that the man before me still had over $30,000 in that particular checking account. The Lufthansa flight crews appear to overnight in this hotel on a regular basis, and I spoke some German with one guy yesterday afternoon for kicks. This city is so diverse, he didn't seem to be the least bit surprised.

Jim Mustian

Writing Game Stories Worth Reading

THIS SESSION WAS AMAZING!!!

I got so many ideas from this presentation, I can't wait to get back to Natchitoches and rewrite every story in the sports section of the Potpourri. Seriously.

Joe Gisondi from Eastern Illinois University inspired me and gave me so many ideas for stories and angles. I feel like, at NSU, sports writers can get away with writing sub-par stories because no one else wants to do it. After this session, I don't want anyone to get away with that anymore.

Since NSU doesn't have a sports writing class, I walked away with a lot from this presentation regarding writing sports leads and leaving out statistics no one knows about. Gisondi also gave suggestions for building relationships with sources, not letting athletes and coaches get away with cliche answers and putting positive spins on stories after a team lost.

I am so excited to go home and put all the things I learned from the sports sessions into action!

-- Lauren Sciba

Niche Marketing

This session was informative but didn't exactly apply to our situation with the yearbook. The session focused on marketing your yearbook and boosting your sales. At NSU, yearbook fees are included in student fees so we don't have a problem selling the books but we do have a problem with distribution. The session was basically a brainstorming/sharing of ideas session.

I left the session with some ideas to improve our distribution. It was suggested that we use the resources that are available to us. We need to utilize NSU22, The Current Sauce, and KNWD to help inform students about distribution dates. We could also use an event to increase distribution. We should have a yearbook signing party, for example, or set up a tent in front of Keyser with drinks and a light snack to attract students to pick up their yearbook.

An interesting thought: yearbook was the first Facebook.

Brittany Byrd

Legal Issues of Online Newsgathering

I'll be honest, I was disappointed with this session. Adam Goldstein from the Student Press Law Center discussed issues concerning Facebook for most of the presentation. He vaguely touched on copyright laws, contract laws and mentioned fair-use and fair-access issues. During the Q and A session, people mostly asked "what if...." scenario questions about ethics and what they could or couldn't get in trouble for.

I felt this was a waste of my time, as I have already taken Communication Law and Ethics in Journalism, so I didn't really learn anything new. The description of this session was misleading; I thought the session would cover more about online newsgathering, not primarily discuss how using photos from Facebook used out of context is wrong.

-- Lauren Sciba

Writing Game Stories Worth Reading

This session was great! I decided to attend a sports session because I feel that the sports sections within NSU student media needs some work.

I am not a sports person and have never been interested in writing about sports...until now. The session has inspired me to become a sports writer! I can't wait to get back and get to work.

The speaker addressed problems within the college sports publication. He provided an example of what a good sports story should contain and we are going to print a copy for all sports writers when we get back.

A sports story should not be about stats,scores, or quotes. It should emphasize the most interesting angle of the game in order to draw the reader in and include sources from both teams. There was so much information in this session that I can't blog about all of it. He did give us a Web site, http://www.onsportz.com/, as a resource he created for college sports writers that is definitely worth checking.

Brittany Byrd

Feature Does Not Mean Fluff

The name of this session was misleading, and it was not what I expected at all. Originally I thought that this session was about feature writing, but it was actually about design. I was disappointed because I am really interested in feature writing and not really in design.

The session provided examples from The Washington Post, showing how important the layout and design of a page is to a story. I hope to attend a feature writing session later today or tomorrow.

Brittany Byrd

Breaking into Magazines

This was a popular session for NSU student media... A lot of my fellow students were present for this one.

David Levy discussed how to make a living as a freelance writer for magazines. Although freelance work can be hit or miss, he said a living could be made, if a writer is persistent.

The importance of query letters and details of formatting and content in the letters was discussed in great detail. I felt like this session was very helpful to me because I can see myself doing freelance work in the future.

-- Lauren Sciba

Are You Red? Blue? White? Yellow?

Understanding your personality and the different personalities of your staff is important in assigning tasks, communicating, and addressing problems. This session informed attendants about the personalities and the pros and cons of each.Everyone at the session took a personality test. I was a red/blue personality.

Red is a very strong personality. Usually very productive and practical, reds are used to getting thier way and work well is leadership positions because they get things done. Sometimes hard to work with, reds can be bossy.

Blues are very loyal and everything they do is quality based. Blues are the most controlling of personalities and are very committed. They are dependable, worry prone and very analytical.

To know how to work with and respond to your staff you first have to understand your own personality. We discussed which personalities worked well together and performed which tasks the best. This session gave an interesting insight on how to read and manage your staff.

Brittany Byrd

The Successful Sports Section

The speaker for this session was Nils Rosdahl from North Idaho College. He had some great examples and ideas for quality sports sections for newspaper that could also be modified for yearbook.

I was really fired up by this session; it gave me such great ideas for our media on covering different sports and creative ways to report. Rosdahl said that sports stories should not be recaps because everyone already knows what happened before they pick up the paper. The stories should have an angle and also look towards the future. Feature stories on players or specific plays are a good way to make the section interesting too. I realized from this session that sports stories are newsy, but should be written more like features to draw in readers.

-- Lauren Sciba

How To Cover Your Campus Effectively

Sally Turner from Eastern Illinois University presented this session that discussed the importance of using every source possible.

Turner said every person on campus could be a potential source, including the lunch lady and the maintenance worker. Using the same sources over and over, such as the president of the university or the head of a department will eventually become obsolete. Quotes will become uniform and answers will always be vague when interviewing "important" people. A public face of the school will always sugarcoat things, why would they ever say anything negative about the place that writes the checks?

The session gave me some good ideas that I plan to implement when I return to NSU.

-- Lauren Sciba

Dinner, Drinks, and a Visit from a Strange Man

The night started off with dinner. The whole group went to eat at The Diner in Adams Morgan. The food was great! I had Greek Pasta with chicken, spinach, and feta cheese.

Adams Morgan was an area that a few of us wanted to explore so we stayed after dinner, looked around and had drinks. The group slowly dwindled down and Lela and I returned to the hotel. We met Dr. Lee in the lobby and sat and talked a while.

During our girl talk we received a visit from a strange man. He had attended an awards ceremony at the hotel. As he approached, we realized he was in tuxedo wear but was missing his coat, tie, and cumberbund, and it quickly became obvious he was inebriated. The exchange between us and the gentleman was disturbing at the time but hilarious once he had moved on his way.

As we were sitting and laughing about the earlier exchange, he returned. After he left once more, Lela reported him to the front desk. This started a chain of events that resulted in our first experience in backpack journalism. After meeting up with other CMA conference students -- whom the man also had bothered -- we gathered footage of the disturbance. Lela was the onsite correspondent, and I worked behind the camera for the first time.

A hotel full of college journalism students is probably not the best place to make a scene. Stay tuned for our video blogs of the newscast.

Needless to say our first night DC was quite interesting!

Brittany Byrd

Dinner at THE DINER.

After an hour of settling in, freshening up and getting registered downstairs, NSU student media was ready to get to the business of dinner. I had insisted that all of us have dinner together the night that we arrived in DC, and everyone wanted to know where I would be dragging them for this much-ballyhooed meal. People, trust me!!

We trooped over (up, actually) to Adams Morgan, a lively district about a half mile from the hotel, and I ushered my entourage into one of my local favorites, THE DINER. The host pushed a table together with a booth to seat us right away. I could tell that after eating nothing but airport food all day and enduring all of that uphill cardio, this group was ready to chow down.

As plates of Greek pasta, Caribbean sandwiches and Philly omelets appeared -- and quickly disappeared -- we could finally relax, unwind and laugh about the day's trials and tribulations. I hope this camaraderie, sprung from a long day of travel and sealed over grilled cheese and home fries, continues to develop over our next few days in D.C.

Dr. Lee

We made it!

Although I was excited to arrive in DC, getting here was not a process that I was excited about.

Jim, Mary and I were originally expected to arrive in DC late Wednesday night, however we managed to finagle our way on the stand-by lists for two flights. We actually arrived earlier than the rest of the group and avoided a four-hour layover in Dallas.

Upon the reunion of the group, we boarded the Metro. Dr. Lee warned us that rush hour might cause chaos while riding, so we prepared ourselves for the massive crowd of commuters. I now know what salmon feel like in their migration up-stream.

We finally came to our stop on the Metro where we headed towards the hotel, walking the four longest blocks of my life.... In the rain. Toting suitcases and covered by umbrellas, I can only imagine the sight we were to the locals -- a horde of student journalists accompanied by the roar of rolling bags and obnoxious umbrellas. Look out, DC! NSU IS HERE!

-- Lauren Sciba

Arrival

After a delayed flight, catching the metro during rush hour, and walking 4 blocks in the rain, we finally arrived at our hotel in DC. I was so excited to get here! During the walk to the hotel we were able to get familiar with the area. There is so much to do and so little time.


It is so funny to be here and think of Natchitoches and how very different the two places are. Yesterday we actually saw people walking around the city in the rain; at home no one would leave their house, much less walk around with an umbrella. I can't wait to go exploring after my sessions.

Brittany Byrd

Base of Operations.

The Hilton Washington in Dupont Circle -- our home away from home this week.

The front-desk clerk told me that the staff were expecting more than 800 conference guests at the hotel and that by the time we arrived (around 6pm), they had already received 20+ noise complaints on Thursday alone. If that's the most trouble they have with this many college students in one place, then they should consider themselves lucky.

[Some of us may not recognize the hotel in this picture because the sky is blue, not gray, and the sun is shining.]

Entourage.

I am proud, relieved and amazed that the NSU student media posse has arrived at the conference intact and in good spirits. Getting here was truly an accomplishment -- and an adventure.

We met before dawn in a fog-filled parking lot on campus before heading off in a caravan of carpools to the Shreveport airport. Just a few hours earlier, I had run into Jim after midnight at Wal-Mart, and I had seen many of the conference-goers at Kyser even later than that, as they worked most of the night putting the paper to bed. At 4 a.m., when Kera walked back into the newsroom to pick up her phone and I was still in my office trying to finish up paperwork, I really wondered if some of us (meaning me) would have to go to DC with just the clothes on our backs.

Getting to Shreveport was only the first leg of a long day of travel. Lauren, Jim and Mary had to fly standby all day because the flights they were booked on were much later than the rest of the group, and we were determined to arrive en masse. Luck was on our side, and at the last minute, our three standby passengers snagged the last three seats on our flight to Dallas.

Our good fortune seemed to shine on in Dallas, where Jim, Lauren and Mary immediately hustled over to a flight already boarding and once again were able to grab the last few seats off of the standby list for a packed flight, this time to DC. While they were winging their way east, the rest of us boarded another flight and learned that our pilot was running late to the airport. By the time we finally left, I had read the Entertainment Weekly I bought in DFW from cover to cover and annoyed my seatmates with a growing pile of discarded newspapers.

Our group reunited upon landing at Reagan, and we set off to the Metro for our first foray into DC. I now know what it's like to have an entourage. I was the leader of a wheelie-pulling Gen Y gang, thundering through the turnstiles and taking up excessive extra space on the Metro system at rush hour. After emerging at Dupont Circle, we headed on foot for the Hilton Washington, allegedly a few short blocks away. My entourage and I hiked (trudged) several long blocks uphill, through a steady drizzle, flirting with scolosis and wrist sprains from schlepping bags. When the blue Hilton "H" finally came into view, I asked Andi if it was a mirage. She confirmed that it was real; we had indeed arrived!

The lobby of the hotel was chaos, with every seat and square foot occupied by gaggles of college kids in various states of hanging out or checking in. As I made my people hang out while I checked us in, I took stock of the scene. Sure, we were a soggy, bedraggled bunch without the requisite matching luggage and garment bags in school colors -- but I was incredibly proud to have brought every single one of these student media leaders to the ACP/CMA conference. Standing there, I felt the collective energy of hundreds of ambitious, earnest and enthusiast journalism students. Watching everyone, I felt excited about the contribution that NSU makes every year in adding to this congregation. Looking around, I felt old.

Dr. Lee